RICHARD MOULT - Yclypt

Ancestral rites from British tradition underpin the inspiration behind this new work by the multifaceted composer, poet and painter Richard Moult, the first artist to appear twice in the catalogue of Second Language run by Glen Johnson and co.

If “Celestial King For A Year” drew on medieval Christian chants, the six compositions gathered under the enigmatic title “Yclypt” (an archaic term from which the verb to embrace derives) are the result of a reimagining of an ancient religious ceremony that Moult discovered during a stay on the Gloucestershire coast, which involved choral chants sung by young people holding hands as they circled the perimeter of the local church.

Though wordless, the hymns raised up in “Yclypt” convey a similar feeling, evoking both togetherness and sacredness at once. While the second piece is mostly a suggestion, born of the austere elongation of a string piéce, the first is fully realised through the “choral” quality with which the harmonies (and dissonances) produced by the same instruments are juxtaposed, creating a result that is at times spectral.

In this sense, Moult's compositions, and the way he directs the performances of his trusty quintet, achieve effects very close to drone-style note manipulation. All of this happens almost exclusively through the use of real instrumentation, shaped in turn into chamber-like melodies (particularly in the first two movements of the opening “Apollo Winceleseia”), or juxtaposed in restless iterations (the third movement of “Apollo Winceleseia”, the twists of “Song For Mourie” and the placid layering of the closing “Symbol Of An Infinite Past”).

On every occasion, Moult doesn't stray all that far from the path of string experimentation he has pursued in his most recent works (also worth mentioning is the mini-album “Suite For Tor Aluinn”), with a personal touch that's less convoluted than one might expect, given that his sonic output, geared towards evocation rather than romanticism, isn't always the easiest to decode.

It is, after all, the artist himself who explains that this latest work didn't stem from some abstract academic concept, but from a chance experience in the places he set out to narrate through music; the effect of his compositions is, in any case, guaranteed, and only adds a concise, estranging piece to the portrait of mystery and magic found in the British countryside.

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24/09/2012